Dan725

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that when ordering a meal it seems that there is a high propertion of Americans who have rude manners!

When the waiter takes an order, a lot of them say "I want the steak", "Get me the lobster", or whatever, without so much as a please or thankyou or a smile or acknowledgement, even if the waiter is chatty and smiley and says how are you - they talk over them like they are not even there. Similarly in take away places - on a few occasions I've seen it where someone comes in to pick up an order, and the smiling counter person says, "Hi, how are you?", and the ignoramus just scowls, blurts out their order number, pays and exits without so much as a by your leave!

A Brit friend mentioned this to me, and I can't stop seeing it now!

I'm not saying there are not rude people in the UK, or polite people in the US, it just seems to be more common over here.

When I was brought up, my parents were forever telling me that "I want never gets" and to always say please and thankyou, seems not to be taught over here!

I've also noticed a lot of the worst offenders are your older, pride-themselves-on-manners church crowd.

I find it strange that, in a country that prides themselves on their hospitality, it all goes wrong on the little details we're generally brought up with!

Oh, and not to mention the irritating and picky specifications of some diners - they WANT a little bit more of this, something else thats not on the menu, extra this that and the other, a ton of napkins, talking loud on cell phones when the waiter is there, yadda yadda yadda,! Inside my head I'm always shouting "Stop being so picky and be thankful with what you are getting!!"

Rant over!

fatbrit

One that gets me is the "I need..." when ordering. Especially as 99 times out of 100 they plainly don't need it.

Rushman

I also don't think that "Sure' is a good replacement for "Yes please".

Just as another point, why do they bother putting knives on the tables? I notice that the fork is the favoured impliment for cutting, spearing and shoving the food in gobs. Naturally, with the non used hand placed on the lap.
I refuse to let my kids talk with food in there mouths, I don't want to see a human concrete mixer swirling half eaten food in their mouths to the tune of 'smack and slurp". Seems i am in a minority here.

Rushman

Oh yes!! good observation

Chorlton

I think you're right. Please, thank you etc are rare commodities in these places. Then, theres table manners...

gruffbrown

My wife is actually quite polite to waiting staff, but she waited tables and tended bar to pay her way through college, so she knows what a crappy job it is. My step children on the other hand are relatively rude, they don't look at the server or say please or thank you, in all other regards they are usually quite polite and respectful. Also American friends are pretty short with them as well, so yes I'm assuming it's a cultural thing.

I found the fork thing really odd when I first got here, I used to have fun playing spot the European in restaurants and have had a few comments about eating Burgers served on plates with a knife and fork

PS and we can't have dinner out without 200 paper napkins being bought to the table!

Dan725

Lol, if you try that with a pizza, people look at you like you are positively from another world

franc11s

I have seen the fork mostly used to cut a piece of meat or something that is too big to fit in the gob. Many Americans see hacking there way through a tough piece of steak with a fork MUCH easier than picking up the knife

In our schools in Georgia they have finally gone to far with the infamor SPORK. It is ONE single instrument (plastic) with 4 jagged points at one end of a spoon and a serated edge down one send. Spoon, fork and knife in one...

I've seen it all.... http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynami...m703496/spork/ .....

I don't know why they don'e just liquidise EVERYTHING and use the same straw they drink their cokes through..

Last but not least on this little rant. Wife, son and I go to Japanese restaurant in Florida a few months back. Not a bad place. Anyway, ate soup with spoon (nothing wrong there) and when the lady took the soup bowl awy she gave me the same spoon back... Why? I asked.. Oh, you'll need that for your ice cream.......... Grrrrrrrrrrr

Partystar

All are very good points that I too have noticed. I belong to a mum's group here & one of the girls wrote a thread about southern hospitality & how it doesn't exist here (in Phoenix), she said they all had great manners from down south, but she (& a few other southerners in our group) would order like that, I want, I need, Get me this that blah blah blah, I was sick of it & thought it was very hypocritical, so after anyone ordered like that, I would add please & thank you to the end of their order, just to drill it home!!! hahaha

meauxna

OK, you asked.

My question is: Has anyone else noticed that when someone here has a complaint or negative comment about something they experienced *in their tiny BFE part of the US* it is applied to All Americans?
(note: this is a rhetorical question; I do know that it has been noticed)

My first in-depth introduction to a large number of British people was as a waitress-- I'm American, and the restaurant is in Greece.
If I attributed every stupid quality I came across as being "typically British", I would really, really hate your countrymen. As it turns out, I must've found the only civilized one, and married him. (warning: that was tongue in cheek)

I found *them* to be incredibly rude for not thanking me when I delivered their plates. "Cheers" they'd say, as they tucked in. "WTF" I'd think. Oh yeah, until *I learned the lingo*.
I thought they were bizarre for not wanting their pizza leftovers wrapped to take home. Or the carbo/fat overload of ordering a portion of fries (hey, it's an American-style diner) WITH the pizza. Or this insistance on having pudding (and not a box of Jello in sight...). Oh right, their ways are their ways. My job, paid or not, was to crack the code and work with the customers I had!

Now, I'm sure the lot of you here are way more sophisticated than the holiday folk I met (wow, those island packages sure are cheeeep, aren't they?!) so I probably didn't meet an acurate cross-section of the UK population. Therefore, I would not ever make an assumption that all Brits are this that or the other thing. Tho, they did seem uniformally impressed (positively or not) by my reflexive smiling-- that always got a lot of comments and is how I was picked out as being American before even opening my mouth.

There's no way this post is intended to defend rude diners (oh, I've waitressed here, I know what people are like) or any other disgusting American quirk. I just don't get how posts like these do you or anyone any good, unless they just make you feel superior.

hey gruffbrown, sounds like the you have a great opportunity for a teaching moment with the kids. I learned how to eat the Euro knife/fork way when we lived in Europe when I was a kid. I am glad to have learned it early.

Partystar

It said high propertion of American's, not all. I didn't see anyone say all. Just an observation, I'm pretty sure it's a given that we're not saying all American's, that would be stereotyping.

Dan725

You must've missed this bit:

"I'm not saying there are not rude people in the UK, or polite people in the US, it just seems to be more common over here".

And the point of the post was just to have a mini rant, isn't that what we do on here!

fatbrit

Hehe! And you're still civil too us.

But you're comparing the Brits away from their natural environment whereas we're looking at 'Mericuns in their own home.

The biggest contrast is probably Germans. They're generally great if you meet them in Germany, but rather horrible if you should come across them in the Med.

Notice that many of your examples (like my sole one, I should add) are just the fact that two different languages illogically share the same name.

meauxna

Oh, I thought y'all were freaks in your homeland, too

Thanks for letting me have *my* little rant too. I snipped most of the OP since I was really just exercising my own agenda anyway

PS: no fair bringing up the poor Germans. Classic example of cultural differences.. they seem 'rude' but I'm sure it's just their 'dry sense of humor' or sumpin'.

gruffbrown

Tried it, but they're too busy ignoring the waiter/waitress and thinking about what they 'need' in the way of food to worry about a knife